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April 16, 2018

GO Virginia State Board approves over $1.5 million in grants for Region Five

Reinvent Hampton Roads
February 21, 2018

The GO Virginia State Board has approved four projects from Region Five, totaling over $1.5 million in grants.

At the December 12, 2017 GO Virginia State Board meeting, two projects submitted by Region Five Regional Council were approved, both in the talent development arena:

HR Cyber Co-Lab ($642,713) – The HRCyber Co-Lab will serve as an anchor for innovation in the cybersecurity, data analytics, autonomous vehicles and virtual technologies markets in Hampton Roads.

Virginia Digital Shipbuilding Workforce Program ($647,540) – This project will create a regional and statewide program to train approximately 8,500 future workers – skilled craftsmen, engineers, designers, and IT professionals – to work in the new digital manufacturing environment and will support Hampton Roads’ existing advanced manufacturing and shipbuilding clusters.

The GO Virginia State Board also met on February 13 2018 and approved two Per Capita Grant projects submitted by the Region Five Regional Council. The funding included $140,000 for the 757 Seed Fund and $150,000 for Hampton Roads Unmanned Systems Park.

The 757 Seed Fund project will establish the administrative structure for a new fund to provide seed-stage investments to Virginia’s most compelling innovation-based, high-growth companies. The creation of a new seed fund to complement the work of the 757 Angels will help to build critical mass of quality investable companies necessary to establish an innovation economy in the Hampton Roads region.

The Hampton Roads Unmanned Systems Facility (HRUSF) project will facilitate the initial steps needed to establish a new facility that will provide an open area and infrastructure for use by public institutions, private companies and individuals to develop, test and demonstrate unmanned systems. The goals of the first funded phase is to:

1. Establish a new Regional Industrial Facility Authority (RIFA) governance structure for cost and revenue sharing
2. Prepare architectural and engineering plan that will cover the scope of the development